dothack ARBITER
by Charon of the Acheron
Summary: Join us in the adventures of our newest companions as they journey forth into The World , a MMORPG known for wreaking havoc in the real world! Will these new adventurers see trouble from the past as it stirs anew?
1. Beginnings and the Resistance

Sabaku: Hey guys, Saba here welcoming you to my .hack// series titled .hack//ARBITER. Now I'm a .hack// junkie. I love this series almost as much as I love Bleach! And that says volumes. I'm doing this series for two reasons. 1) Because I felt moved to. And 2) as a tribute to my friend who got me so hooked on the series. May he R.I.P.

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. Hack//ARBITER

Log One

"Beginnings and the Resistance"

"So which character do you want to be like?" A slender youth of fourteen asked to his companion who stood behind him and to the right, "I want to be a steam gunner, like Kuhn. I met him once. The guy was awesome. Helped me out with a lot of things when I started." The boy ran his hands over the keyboard, barely touching the freshly unpacked keys. A jerk of his head violently to one side was in an attempt to clear his dark brown hair from his vision.

"I dunno… Maybe… Uh… Is Balmung of the Azure Sea still playing?" The other boy asked as he stepped up next to his friend and placed his left hand lazily on his opposite shoulder.

"Balmung?" The boy at the computer asked surprised, "I don't think so… Heard that he was a big player during R: 1, but after the first Internet crisis I hadn't heard anything about him." The brown haired youth swiveled in his chair so that he faced his friend. A friendly smile crept onto the brown haired youths face, as he looked at the blonde haired fellow cast a nervous glance back.

"Oh… Okay. Well does the R: 2 have Blademasters?" The other boy stepped forward more, cautiously, eyeing the screen as if it called to him.

"Not really. Here I'll show you." The brown haired boy turned back to face the computer screen and clicked on the icon that read "The World". "What do you want your user account name to be?"

"_Silence_. No! Wait_._ I want it to be _Venger_." A small smile began to spread over the blonde boys face. He bent over so that he could view the screen better. The light resonating from the computer reflected back off of his light green eyes.

"You're in luck! That hasn't been taken." The brown haired boy exclaimed after a few taps of the keyboard. "Okay now for your first character." The brown haired boy moved his left hand over the mouse and brought the cursor over the words "Create Character" and clicked twice. A new screen popped up and he turned his head to his friend, "Okay, I like giving my characters names before I start building them. What about you?"

"I-I guess…" The blonde replied quietly.

"Hey relax! I told you once you're in _'The World' _you could be anyone you want to! Well, almost anyone." The brown haired boy omitted after a quick consideration, "Now what do you want your In Character –or I.C.- name to be?"

"Um… Arisuno. A. R. I. S. U. N. O." The blonde spelt out and waited for his friend to finish tapping the keys to enter the name. Once his friend was done he confirmed that the spelling was correct.

"Alright! Now that your character has a name it's time for you to make him. You said you wanted to be like Balmung, right?" The brown asked and waited for the blonde to nod in agreement, "Okay well like I said there aren't Blademasters anymore but in their place there is Blade Brandier. It's the equivalent to Blademaster."

"So why didn't they just keep the names?" The blonde asked.

"Who knows." The brown shrugged as he turned back to the screen and clicked the mouse until the class read "Blade Brandier".

After nearly an hour and a half of details and customization, the blonde switched places with the brown haired boy. The brown handed him the standard gray M2D goggles and joystick. "I'll join you in a few. Just log on and wait for me to contact you alright?" The blonde nodded in agreement and placed the goggles on and turned to face the computer screen. Swiftly he dragged the mouse over the word "Create" and finally dove into _"The World"_.

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Sabaku: Wow! Okay I think I did all right for a beginning, but I have to stop for now. I want to leave off here so I can transist from one style of writing to another. Plus I want to leave you guys coming back for more and what better way than to leave you wonder what awaits our new crew? Oh and for future reference for all you readers wondering if this is going to have our new players wielding Epitaphs, sorry to disappoint, but no. This is going to run parallel with .hack//G.U. towards the end. Hm… Maybe I'll change that to after the events of the Second Internet Crisis. Anyways this rant is done!

Later folks!

Comments and reviews will be greatly appreciated.


	2. Resistance and the Trial

**.Hack//ARBITER**

Log Two

_"The Resistance and Trial"_

The cool sea breeze ruffled Arisuno's starch white hair that framed his face. His opal eyes scanned across the ancient looking surface of Mac Anu. Inside Arisuno was afraid. This was his first time in _"The World" _and his friend said he'd be on very shortly. The only thing Arisuno could do is wait until someone P.M.'d him for either a friend invite or a party invite. Taking his eyes off of the buildings, Arisuno focused more upon himself. His plain white cloth pants with azure colored stripes running down the sides looked ridiculous. He should have them changed and soon. The one article of clothing that Arisuno did like was his starch white shirt with a piece of padding jutting out from his right arm. The cloth had fold of azure in it as well, but it looked less ridiculous because it looked to be a samurai robe. According to his friend many people who choose his character class went with the samurai look. Someone tapped on Arisuno's left shoulder rather roughly, and when Arisuno turned to see whom, he was faced with a giant of a man with broad shoulders and arms so large that Arisuno's arms couldn't possibly have touched had he wrapped his arms around the massive trunks.

"Want to join my party? We're going to start a rare item hunt." The large man offered, but Arisuno kept silent and stepped back a little so he wouldn't have to crane his neck to look up at the man. "What, too good to talk? Come on at least a yes or a no." Arisuno turned his back to the man and started to walk off. He felt awkward talking to people he didn't know. It had been like that all his life. The only reason he was friends with anyone is because his mother and the others parents had decided it would be nice. It always upset Arisuno. The fact that people always made plans on what they thought was best without consulting the people it concerned.

A message popped up in the left hand corner of Arisuno's vision.

_TO__: Arisuno  
__FROM__: Semio_

_Subject: _"Yo' bra'"

"Hey man! Just thought I'd send you a P.M. with my character name so you would know who you should be on the look out for. I'll meet you at the market in Mac Anu. Just head south of the Chaos Gate where you logged in.

Arisuno sighed with relief. Well at least now he knew what Trick's name online was. They both had agreed before coming on that they'd meet at a specific spot. And that Trick would specify the location in a Personal Message (or P.M.) titled "Yo' bra'". Without a moment's hesitation, Arisuno pumped his legs as fast as he could, south of the Chaos Gate. First he bolted out of the building where the gate was held, then over a bridge that gave way to a beautiful view of the endless ocean surrounding Mac Anu. From there he passed under a great archway that, after a flight of stairs, opened up to a market where other people were selling their wares. Some were Non-Player Characters (NPC's) and some were actual P.C.'s (Personal Characters or Playable Characters), but one and all were most likely selling some assortment of items that were supposed to help weaker players. Very rarely –or so Trick had said- did high leveled players come here to trade. Mac Anu was the root town for low-level characters such as beginners.

Arisuno's opal eyes swept over the vast crowd, hoping to see his friend's name. Unfortunately the throng was so thick that all of the player's names were getting jumbled together, and it was difficult to pick out one name from another. Eventually he heard a familiar voice and spun to his left. A wide smile slowly crept onto Arisuno's face as he spotted a slender character with short cut black hair who was garbed in simple cloths of dark blues and white –another agreement the two friends had meet. They would wear similar clothing-. Swiftly Arisuno maneuvered through the crowd until he was face to face with "Semio"

"It's about time!" Semio griped as he placed hands on his hips and looked as if he was going to give an instruction on how to properly "search" for a friend. But thankfully he just turned and motioned Arisuno to follow afterwards. Arisuno didn't bother to waste time arguing. It was mainly because of him that they were playing so late, and that would mean they'd only have enough time to get the necessary items to get ready for a forced level mission. Or power leveling as Trick called it. It was a good thing that it was summer vacation, and both of the two had gotten their summer project done way ahead of schedule.

Semio brought Arisuno further into Mac Anu, to where more shops for weapons, armor, and better spells where at. Semio hadn't once looked back to see if his friend was following, but instead trusted that his friend would do as they planned, and just stay quiet and follow. When Semio stopped outside a store with a sword and shield on the sign that hung above it's door, Arisuno's eyebrows rose in question, "Here. Trade with me." Semio commanded reluctantly and sent a trade request. Arisuno accepted eagerly and awaited his friend's offer.

"… What do I put up?" Arisuno asked newbishly, which caused Semio to groan in exasperation.

"Nothing. I'm giving you this gold for free. I've got plenty and you need to stock up on items. I don't want you dying mid-battle." Semio explained plainly.

"Oh, alright." Arisuno accepted the gold and smiled, "Thanks."

"No prob." Semio said lazily as he walked over to a near-by wall and leaned his back against it, "I'm trusting you to budget that gold and buy your items wisely, because that's all I'm giving you for a long while. Got that?" Arisuno nodded and walked into the shop. He was feeling slightly nervous, and really didn't want to bring down his friends wrath. Trick always did seem a little cruel to others if you didn't know that he was just trying to help in the only way he thought he knew how. Trick had a hard exterior but was a really decent guy if you only got to know him, and the fact that he was Arisuno's friend made his face break out in another smile as he approached the storeowner.

Moments later, Arisuno emerged from the fourth store he had gone to and headed back to Semio. His friend was still in the same spot from when he had left to go into the first store, and didn't appear to have moved a single muscle, "Okay. I've gotten all of the items I think I'll need." Arisuno proclaimed happily with a broad grin.

"Good. Then that means tomorrow we'll start your training." For Trick's tone you'd think he was talking about whether it was going to rain or not, "Come on. Lets log out and go get dinner. My mom doesn't like it when I spend a whole lot of time on here as is, and she likes seeing me take periodical breaks." He finished explaining. Arisuno only nodded and the two headed back to the Chaos Gate.

"Why do we come back here?" Arisuno asked puzzled. From how Trick had described the game you could log out wherever you wanted and always start back at the Chaos Gate.

"We don't. I just like to. It's refreshing just to walk all the way back. Besides, there's not really any use rushing, right?" Semio turned his head to look back at Arisuno. Arisuno hesitated before staring back at his friend's indifferent gaze and nodded confidently.

**~The Next Day~**

It was early in the morning when Semio and Arisuno had both logged in. Both of the boys had already eaten breakfast and both were eager to get started on the power leveling. With both of them fully geared up in items and weapons, Arisuno felt confident that today was going was going to be a really good day.

"Okay the area words are _Hidden Forbidden Raging Sea_. Got that?" Semio asked after relaying the words needed to reach the training ground his friend had planned on. Arisuno nodded beamed with excitement. Semio was the first to Gate –as the term was so often called – and after his character had been fully spirited away, Arisuno stepped forward and held his hand out to the Chaos gate. It was like he could actually feel strong waves of energy resonating from the gate. In his head he spoke the words Semio gave him. Swirls of light enveloped his vision. It was the same experience as logging out; only the area around his character after the lights wasn't an orange-ish read of the log out screen. Instead it was a calming blue that streamed passed him until he came to what looked to be an open field on a rainy day. Instantly his character was once more enveloped in a blinding light as his data was transferred to the field.

Semio stood patiently with his hands on his hips to the left of the gate. When a light appeared at the spawn point his body went tense. A moment later Rift's character "Arisuno" appeared and Semio sighed. Thankful that it wasn't a Player Killer (P.K.). Arisuno turned his head to the right and then the left searching the area around looking for Semio. When he had spotted him that ridiculously wide grin appeared on his friends face. Semio suppressed a smile. For his friends sake he was going to set a no-nonsense-mood so that they could get moving quickly. Even though this was a great area to level, it also meant that P. hung around here for newbie "flesh". The thought of P. disgusted him, but then again he was no better than the P. for rushing at them whenever he saw them.

"So what's first?" Rift's voice sprang up through Arisuno. The dolt was really excited, and with a sigh Semio shook his head slowly. "_Everyone has their own way to play 'The World'." _A kind and soft female voice rang through his head. All right. He'd indulge his friend. It wasn't his fault for Semio's mood whenever he logged it. Semio was just supposed to be a hard-ass guy who didn't like taking peoples threats or insults.

"Well seeing as how you already have your weapons equipped, the next step would be attacking. But first I want you to get a good look at your screen and get yourself familiar with some of the graphics that represent health, or HP, and magic, or SP. Also, notice that second bar below yours? Well that's mine and you should be careful to watch that too." As Semio finished explaining Arisuno bit his lip and grunted. It was evident that he was growing impatient, but that didn't matter. He'd sit there and listen to this explanation whether he liked it or not.

"Come on Semmie! Can't we just go ahead and fight already?" Oh yeah, Rift was eager. With a slight inclination of Semio's head, he closed his eyes and sighed and tried to ignore the nickname his friend had decided to give him.

"Fine. Do you see any monsters near-by?" Semio asked as he brought his head back up and watched Arisuno search.

"Hm~… Nope!" Arisuno replied with a little too much enthusiasm than needed. Arisuno was practically beaming with excitement, which wasn't a bad thing, if anything that just meant he was all the more ready for a day filled with mindless hacking and slashing at dumbed down monsters.

"Alright, well I'll give you a mission. I want you to go around and kill as many monsters as you can without taking too much damage. I'll only help if you're about to die or if you need to run away, but other then that I won't help you kill unless it's the boss of this area." Semio smiled and cocked his head to one side. This wasn't too different from the first mission he had received. So it should be easy enough, and Arisuno would definitely gain some levels and experience.


	3. The Trial and the Blockade

**.Hack//ARBITER**

Log Two

_"The Trial and the Blockade"_

As the fields rain pounded against Arisuno's back he drove his blade through a goblin's rib cage. The monster let out a scream of pain as he drew his blade out of its corpse. The arena's blue fight barrier dropped and Semio stepped forward.

"Just in time. We need to move to some cover. I thought I spotted another player and without knowing we assume that they are a P.." Semio looked over his shoulder then back to Arisuno. He started to head for a weathered old monument made of a yellowish stone.

The two of them continued passed the monument until they arrived at a tall building made of the same material as the monument. There was a large opening at the front of the building and it looked as if it went on forever, stretching upwards into the sky. Arisuno swallowed a lump in his throat and looked to Semio who grinned a very cocky grin and started in. Arisuno looked back over his own shoulder and saw a shadow peaking out from the monument. A chill ran up his spine and he chased after Semio, hollering for him to wait up.

After countless battles inside the building, as well as a long exploration of room after room, Arisuno looked at Semio, "C-Can't we … take a break?" He asked between pants. Semio looked at him with condescending eyes.

"Not yet. We'll finish this dungeon and then get something to eat."

"How long have we been playing, feels like hours."

"Actually you're close. Though it's only been an hour or so."

"What?" Arisuno exclaimed as he bolted upright, "You're joking right? I thought this was supposed to be fun!"

"Well, aren't you having fun?" Semio asked him sounding worried.

"Eh? Well … Yeah, but—" Before he could get out anymore, Semio slapped him on the back.

"Good! Now then, onwards to the next room!" He cried as he charged off. Arisuno sighed heavily and reluctantly followed him. When he finally caught up Semio stood defiantly and looked at a few rather large enemies, "I'll bet you can take them down single handedly." Arisuno's mouth dropped open and he stared at his friend in disbelieving.

"Okay, that's it. You are officially crazy!" Arisuno threw up his hands in protest and turned away from his friend, getting ready to storm off.

"Its either keep fighting the monsters and know you're safe until we reach the beast at the bottom, or stop and find out whoever it is that is tailing us. Besides, if you fail this test that just means tomorrow I get to drill you even harder." A crooked smile appeared on Semio's face and Arisuno turned back to face him.

"I take back what I said about you being crazy,"

"Why's tha—"

"You're insane." Arisuno charged at his enemies and was able to catch one off guard by hitting them in the back. It bounced off the fight barrier and landed on the ground in front of him. He turned his attention to his other opponent and reached behind his back. A blinding light enveloped his hand as he drew his blade, a simple long sword. The monster behind him rose from the ground, now this was going to be interesting.

A shrill cry arose and the beasts stood frozen. As if all of The World had frozen. Rift cursed as he thought he was experiencing a server glitch. He called out to Trick, "Hey are you experiencing a sever glitch too?"

"I don't know if it's a glitch, but I've sent out a report to a CC Corp. Admin. Maybe we should head back to the gate and choose a different world." Trick replied. Rift nodded to himself and turned back to the monitor. As an experiment he had Arisuno attack the frozen monster and to his surprise he was still able to fight! He waited for the monster and the barrier to drop before he went over to Semio and shrugged.

"Glitch or not, I was still able to kill the NPC's." Arisuno said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Semio looked at him sideways and then looked away. He started forward when a malicious chuckle echoed through the room.

"My oh my. How quaint. I feel like I'm watching some cliché anime where two friends work to improve themselves for battle. And here I am walking in on your training. That can only mean one thing! Baa baa baam~!" The voice echoed another laugh and both Semio and Arisuno turned so they were facing the only entrance to the room. Semio had a long spear out and ready to charge. Arisuno brought his blade up to his torso and readied himself as well.

From the entrance walked in a slender male character with green hair. His bangs fell down to his chest and he wore slender black clothing. A purple scarf was wrapped around his neck and a cruel grin appeared on his face. His emotionless silver eyes were augers that felt like they were burrowing their way through Arisuno. Arisuno swallowed hard felt a shiver run up his spine. This guy looked like he might be a P.K.

"What is it you want?" Semio asked. He seemed to ignore the other mans drilling eyes with the way he stood, straight backed and defiant. Arisuno was jealous of his friend for being so cool. The other shrugged and tilted his head awkwardly to one side.

"A few things actually. 1) To know if you guys are Rpers or P., 2) I want your member addresses, and 3) I want to fight." By his tone he sounded like he was talking about something so trivial.

"Okay. Those are easy enough to answer: 1) Rpers mainly. But if it comes to it we're P.K.K.'s, 2) No. We're not just about to give out our member addresses to someone who just asks for them, and finally 3) Look some place else we're busy." Semio's voice was firm and level. He wasn't going to take any kind of manhandling from this guy. The other mans shoulders sagged and he sighed.

"Shame. I was looking for more people to join my P.K. guild, but seeing as how you guys are being stubborn and you claim to be P.K.K.'s, I'm gunna have to fight you anyways." A malevolent smile spread across his face as two blades slid from his wrists. This guy had a custom design that Rift recognized from some of the BBS boards. He looked to be designed after a P. from the R: 1 version named "Sora". Somewhat of a legend, Sora went around P. people for member addresses. Normally he went after beautiful women, but this guy only followed Sora's M.O. as far as P. for member addresses. He didn't seem to care from whom.

The Sora doppelganger launched himself at the two and with swift feet they leaped out of his way. The P. cursed and spat, his lips curled in a feral snarl as he launched another charge aimed at Semio. Semio twirled his spear by the haft and grinned in satisfaction as the spears pole collided with the side of his enemy's skull. The P. was flung into a wall where his body ricocheted off of and into the fight barrier. This time when he got up he charged at Arisuno, no doubt hoping to take out someone weaker than him.

Semio jumped in his way and brought the haft end of his spear up into the P.'s s jaw. By twisting his body, Semio moved behind the P. and finished him off by bringing the point of his spear upwards, running the enemy through the groin with it. For what seemed like minutes neither of them moved. Finally the P.'s data began to flicker and his body started disappearing.

"Heh. Good fighting. I'll be on the watch for you spear boy. Good thing I saved my progress…" With that he was gone. Semio brought his spear point down and looked back at Arisuno.

"Lets go." Arisuno nodded and followed after his friend as they left. Arisuno would have questioned his friend about going further into the dungeon, but he figured that if they stayed without knowing how many more levels there were, the P. could come back with friends. Something he doubted Trick didn't want to deal with. As they reached the exit Semio suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Arisuno asked as he stopped short of his friend.

"There's no exit."

"What are you talking about? Its right there."

"That's not the exit. Look closely." Puzzled, Arisuno walked over to the exit and stretched out a hand ready to tell his friend he was messing with him, but when his hand reached where what should have been an opening into the field, his hand met solid wall.

"W-What is this?" Arisuno wretched his hand back and stepped away, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but what ever did that also won't let us use items to get out."

"How do you know?"

"While you were walking for the fake exit I tried using an item."

"You were gunna leave me here?"

"Of course not!" Semio yelled. Arisuno flinched slightly. Trick hadn't yelled in some time. Rift swallowed a little as Arisuno's shoulders sagged. Semio sighed, "Look," he started, "I wasn't going to leave you hear, but I thought that if I could get out I could contact an Administrator to come and get you out."

"So if you can't do that then … what?"

"Come on. We'll head back down and claim the treasure here by beating the boss." Semio turned and walked away. Arisuno followed close behind.

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Sabaku: Hey there guys. Sorry this one took so long to get out. Normally I try and get one new chapter out for each of my fanfics before I work on the other, but I haven't been able to think of anything good for my Bleach on. Don't worry though! I feel something coming. Anways I hope you are all enjoying my .hack// fanfic. Reviews are appreciated!


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